Any Philosophers here??

Are there any philosophers here in sciforums?

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What I mean by philosophers is professional ones, that studied philosophy at university...

 

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What a deep question....

Would a real philosopher ever take a philosophy degree at university?

I studied logic and scientific method at uni, but I think your wanting more of a history of philosophy rather than method of thought.

 

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Uh, most of them do... in fact most of the better known philosophers teach philosophy at universities. In fact I can't think of any famous philosophers who didn't have a doctorate in philosophy.

But I really doubt any of them are here. I'm sure there are people here who've been philosophy majors at their universities (myself, for example), but it's unlikely that anyone here is published.

 

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No I did not study philsophy at university. I studied cognitive psychology, and had philosophy of mind and cognition as a main topic.

Hoth,
"In fact I can't think of any famous philosophers who didn't have a doctorate in philosophy. " I take it you mean 'no philosopher of the last 150 years'.

 

kaduseus,

Actually, I want a method of thought...


The reason I ask that, is because I would like to study philosophy somewhere, but I don't know how good or bad the earning for a philosopher is. Besides that, I would like to have my own philosophy, besides agreeing with an existing one.

Maybe Hoth can answer my questions...?

 

If you want to become a philosopher in the sense of writing books and articles, you are expected to have your own philosophy. However, you should also have a thick skin. There will be a lot of scrutinizing!
The same holds for any other scientist. We may respect each other, but we will burn each others ideas. "Test it to the limit."

BTW earnings will be minimal, probably.

 

Does philosophy gives me any credibility to get other better jobs?

 

uh, NO. that's why more people don't do it.

 

Philosophers don't make a cent unless they teach. Take Searle, Dennett, Chalmers, Nagel, the Churchlands, or just about any other well-known philosopher and you'll find that what they do for a living is teach. To make money you have to become a professor and then require your students to buy the books you've written. That's just the way it is.

I'm about a month away from my B.A. in philosophy, and I'm sure I'll be stuck in a low paying job for which philosophy is no help.

 

I've met a few philosophy grads, they all seem to have alot of money to start with.
Take up photography as a technical hobby as well, you can always survive selling artistic b/w photo's or make a packet selling other types of photo's on the net.

 

engineering is a pretty good substitute for philosophy if you think of it that way while you're learning engineering. probably a lot of topics are great subs if you view them philisophically, and you don't have to be poor!

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*giggle*

it's about supply and demand see. not a lot of businesses make more money via philosophical exploration (not entirely true I suppose).

 

Hoth,

Why are you studying philosophy then?

 

I study philosophy because computer science didn't work out, I had to change my major and I needed something that didn't require many units to graduate. Plus, it's interesting and easy. It's no worse than being an English major or a history major, probably, as far as jobs... for some things, just having a degree of any sort helps.

Those who say studying philosophy means just knowing the history are wrong... there's actually not that much emphasis on history, with the exception of a few specialized history of philosophy classes. In most classes it's about presenting philosophical problems and comparing possible solutions to them... this natually involves considering the solutions historical people have thought up, but original thought is always considered good if you can give rational arguments for a new solution.

 

Cool! I was thinking of going to Computer Science but I have been feeling that it wouldn't work!!

So... why did you plan to do computer science? Do you want to work with computers (or computer games...

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)? Does philosophy helps?? (thank God it is not mostly history!! I love philosophical problems...

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)

 

Having a degree in philosophy no more makes you a philosopher than sleeping in a garage makes you an Alfa Romeo.

However, if you want to get published....

 

Most of the people who get degrees in philosophy, I'd never want to call philosophers. However, it'd certainly be a larger percentage than of those who don't. Someone who doesn't know the problems of philosophy or the sorts of approaches people have tried and the objections to those, is almost certainly not going to be worth much philosophically. You just waste time running through arguments that have already been done, not knowing the objections that have already been made, if you haven't had much formal exposure to the subject. You also get a lot more feedback or higher quality feedback on your own ideas, of course, if you have a professor to criticize an essay or other students to rip apart an argument.

I've always liked coding, used to do basic and C and C++, these days I do mostly PHP. Mainly got killed by all the math and physics requirements, though I can't say I liked data structures much either (though I like OOP)... I'll be happy if I never have to balance another AVL tree. I don't think philosophy particularly helps with computer science, except maybe that they both require the invention of ordered logical systems to solve problems.

 

Thought you guys might enjoy this ...

Tips for the Top: How to be a philosopher

 

nope, i took the required course work in college, though(either that or i had the choice of logic, which i like to, but somehow prefer phil. ) just because i don't have a degree in phil, however, doesn't mean i'm not able to sit out under the stars at night and contemplate deep, meaningful thoughts.

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a thinker..

 

I'm minoring in philosophy